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The Art of Motivating

The word motivation is derived from the Latin word "movere", which means to move. The methods to motivate groups or individuals have been highly controversial for many years. It is an area of the human psyche that is not fully understood.

I am going to add a footnote here and say that I am not an organizational behaviorist or a psychologist - just a successful business leader that has a thirst for knowledge in the area of individual and group motivation.

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Some of my curiousity regarding motivation stems from watching my children mature into adults and seeing each of their individual responses to motivational techniques. Educational motivation, sports performance motivation and spiritual motivation (the drive to help others and do good things in society). The number of articles and books are exploding on the subject.

Motivation is defined as an internal drive that activates behavior and gives it direction. The term "motivation theory" is concerned with the processes that describe why and how human behavior is activated and directed.

It is regarded as one of the most important areas of study in the field of organizational behavior.

Reward and Reinforcement Motivators
A reward is that which follows an occurrence of a specific behavior with the intention of acknowledging the behavior in a positive way. A reward often has the intent of encouraging the behavior to happen again.

Coercion Motivation Techniques
The most obvious form of motivation is coercion, where the avoidance of pain or other negative consequences has an immediate effect. Extreme use of coercion is considered slavery.

Self Control Driven Motivaton
The self-control of motivation is increasingly understodd as a subset of emotional intelligence.

All human beings have the same types of needs. What is important is that people experience these needs at different times and to different degrees.

I will be revisiting motivation in the business world and motivation in life - quite often on my blog - so share your comments to trigger my though processes on the next article in this series.

More Reading and Programs

• EQ At Work - Emotional Intelligence Programs
• Business Startup Products
• Brian Tracy "Effective Manager"
• Brian Tracy Coupons

Labels: Organizational Behavior and Motivation, Sports Psychology